Incumbent Sebastian Coe has been re-elected as World Athletics President.
The 66-year-old polled 192 of the 195 votes with three abstaining, but did not have any opposition as the decision was announced in Budapest on the eve of the World Championships.
It means he has now led World Athletics since 2015 and says: “We have a lot of unfinished work to do.”
Coe is convinced the sport must continue to innovate and embrace change if it is to keep up with the modern world. “It was Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over with the same result,” he said. “It’s time to take a deep and objective look at our ourselves and assess our levels of insanity.”
In interviews following his re-election, Coe also suggested that moves to get cross-country running into the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles are “promising”.
Coe succeeded the disgraced Lamine Diack as president and one of his first jobs was to clean up the corruption that was a hallmark of Diack’s reign.
In addition, he has led a tough stance on Russia, banning them from the sport due to their poor doping record. More widely, the problem of drugs in athletics has been tackled by the creation of the Athletics Integrity Unit.
Coe has also led moves to shake up the athletics calendar and has also stopped the trend of athletes nation-hopping from one country to another.
There is speculation that Coe’s final period may be cut short if he stands to replace Thomas Bach as International Olympic Committee when Bach’s term ends two years time.
Source: Athletic Weekly
